All-terrain vehicles generally of small size have become very popular for recreational use as well as ther applications. The necessity of manuevarbility and light weight of these vehicles contributes to difficulty in safe control of the vehicles under some operating conditions such as when operated in reverse or by an inexperienced operator. Thus it is desireable to incorporate a device to govern the maximum speed of the vehicle under certain operating conditions. One method of doing this is through an electronic governor attached to the ignition of the engine, limiting the engine speed to a certain preselected level under the desired operating conditions. Furthermore, two different limit speeds or RPM's may be necessary if the vehicle includes an automatic transmission, whether of the torque converter type generally associated with an automobile or the centrifical clutch and variable ratio of pulley combination generally associated with vehicles such as snowmobiles. An example would be to limit the speed in reverse to a normal slow speed, however, having a further override to allow an engine speed somewhat higher but still below the maximum capability of the engine for use only in situations of backing up where the vehicle needs to proceed from where it is stuck or attached to a trailer or other load requiring higher engine output in reverse.
It is a object of this invention to accomplish these RPM limits using signals normally available from the ignition system and the alternator commonly used on vehicles of this type.